Review - Toy Story 4

I think I've stated at least a couple of times on this blog that I think the Toy Story trilogy is one of the finest trilogies I have ever seen. It works perfectly as a three film arc and I have been very against the idea of any additions to that franchise. But money makes the world go round and Disney is Disney and here we are, 9 years after the last Toy Story, 24 years after the first Toy Story, with a fourth film. Like Incredibles 2 last year, this isn't actually set a relative amount of time after the third film but instead set what seems like only a summer later. Bonnie, the new kid, goes to Kindergarten for the first time and has made a new toy called Forky (oh sweet Forky). Forky believes he belongs in the trash and will do anything to get there, including jump out of a window on a road trip. This in turn leads Woody to jump out and try and find him, which leads to a reunion with Bo Peep, missing in action since the second film. The story focusses around the town Bonnie and her family have ended up in that is currently home to an antiques shop and a carnival and has a bunch of the hijinks you'd expect. Toys pretend not to be alive, arguments lead to splitting up, the lines between hero and villain may be thinner than we think, those kinds of things. Honestly, the plot is nothing spectacular but is largely fine, my one big bugbear being that setting the film right after the last film despite real world disparity robs the film of a lot of potential power. You could look at the harrowing problems of having to move on from a child again but the toys are instead all happy and content, and the subsequent conflict that pushes the film on feels more artificial than it could have were Pixar braver.

As far as the cast goes, that's one of those elements of a Pixar film where we know we're in safe hands. The core of that is the returning franchise actors, primarily Tom Hanks. I've never seen (or heard) bad acting from Tom Hanks and he certainly keeps his streak going here. He is Woody and whatever adventures we go on, it would feel wrong if it was anyone else. Actually, that's all I have to say about everyone who returns in this film. They have embodied their characters so well that even just hearing Laurie Metcalf reprise her role as Andy's mum made me happy. The new performers are great too though, my personal favourite being Tony Hale as Forky. Sure, he's essentially just playing a spork version of Buster from Arrested Development but that really works. There is a sincerity to how much he screams about being trash that made me at least giggle every time. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele pop up for a bit and do a U rated version of their comedy double act which dulls it down quite a bit sadly and Christina Hendricks from Mad Men comes along and does some villain stuff for a bit. But guess who else is in this film? Go on, guess. Maybe you know already. I'll give you a clue, he's a God and having an amazing summer. That's right, the one, the only, Keanu Reeves is in Toy Story 4 as Duke Caboom. He gets nowhere near enough screen time but warmed my heart a little whenever his broken, slightly sad stunt man turned up. So yeah, good job bunch of celebs who turned up to a recording booth about two years ago!

I've been fairly down on a lot of the recent Pixar films (especially their pointless sequels) but one thing I can never criticise them for is animation quality. Hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people work on the animation for these films and you can tell. Every single scene looks beautiful, sticking to Pixar's animation style and not veering too close to some nasty kind of photo-realism (referencing no African set remake coming out next month). A couple of shots in particular were stunning, especially ones in the rain or with a lot of refracted light. For all that I have said about other Pixar films and am going to say here, I want to congratulate every single animator who worked on this film. You are the reason these films work at all and I thank you for your herculean efforts. Where it does start to get a little sketchy is the emotional aspect. Pixar, and the Toy Story franchise especially, are famed for their ability to elicit all those good emotions. You'll laugh, you'll feel nostalgic for your childhood and you'll have a cathartic little cry. I did do all three in this film, it just feels a little cheaper than before. The crying especially was a cheap shot, where they showed the end scene from Toy Story 3 and so instantly, in the first five minutes, I was in tears. But there was a moment at the end of this film which should have had me in tears but I felt... not that much? I'd enjoyed the ride but saying goodbye can only be so powerful when you've already had to say goodbye. It's all a little bit pointless really, even if it's fun.

I'm going to do a paragraph on the existentialism now because that is something people think we're getting from these films. All sorts of amateur, shitty film bloggers have written on this, in bad posts such as this one https://thequitenerdyblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/opinion-piece-existentialism-of-toy.html. Anyway, more than the other films in the franchise, Toy Story 4 really seems to lean into that, most obviously in the character of Forky. He is literally assembled from nothing but things pulled out of the bin but he is given sentience because a child places her love in him and as such, he is super confused about his purpose for most of the film. He spends a lot of it just wanting to sit in the trash forever (which I think all Uni students can appreciate) and questions what his actual purpose is. Woody also asks himself his purpose constantly, being a toy who is no longer played with. He looks after Forky because Bonnie loves him but does he have a place beyond that? All this is very well and good but thinking about these things is deeply ironic. Toy Story 3 had such a perfect ending that Toy Story 4 hasn't got much of a reason to exist and as I was watching it, I kept asking myself what the purpose of this film was. Other than making money, I still find myself searching for a reason.

This has been a very tricky review for me. I try and go against so much of what Disney do because they are such a cinematic juggernaut and this is clearly a pitch to pluck people's nostalgia strings. That said, it's still a solid enough film and the market they're going for is one which I am clearly inside of. So while I'm not as positive on it as others are, I think I still recommend it and would give Toy Story 4 a